Gluten Free Olive Bread

• servings: 1 serving
• active time: 30 minutes
• total time: 2 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

20 g (¼ cup) whole psyllium husk (If using psyllium husk powder, use only 17g.)

390 g (1½ cups + 2 tbsp) warm water, divided

125 g (1 cup + 1½ tbsp) tapioca starch

105 g (¾ cup + 1 tbsp) sorghum flour

90 g (⅔ cup) millet flour, plus extra for flouring the surface and the proofing basket

15 g (4 tsp) granulated sugar

8 g (2½ tsp) instant yeast (If using active dry yeast, use 10g.)

8 g (1½ tsp) table or sea salt

10 g (2 tsp) apple cider vinegar

12 g (1 tbsp) olive oil

135 g (1 heaping cup) roughly chopped olives (You can use black olives, green olives, or a mix of the two.)

Directions

Making the gluten free dough:

You can prepare the dough using a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment or by hand.

In a bowl, mix together the psyllium husk and 240 g (1 cup) water. After about 15-20 seconds, a gel will form.

In a large bowl (or the bowl of the stand mixer, if using it), whisk together the tapioca starch, sorghum flour, millet flour, sugar, yeast and salt, until evenly combined.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the psyllium gel, vinegar, oil and the remaining water. Knead the dough until smooth and it starts coming away from the sides of the bowl, about 5-10 minutes. Make sure that there are no unmixed patches of dry flour.

Incorporating the olives:

Transfer the bread to a lightly floured surface and roll it out until it's about ½ inch (about 1.5cm) thick. The exact dimensions of the rolled-out dough aren't important.

Scatter the roughly chopped olives evenly across the dough and then roll it up, so that all the olives are fully enclosed by the dough.

Give the dough a gentle knead. This will help to get the olives evenly distributed throughout the bread. If any olive pieces fall out of the dough, just press them back in.

Shaping and proofing the bread:

Shape the bread into a ball, then flip it seam side down onto a part of the work surface that isn't covered in flour and rotate it in place between your palms to seal the seams. For more details about shaping gluten free bread loaves and helpful step-by-step images, check out the Ultimate Gluten Free Artisan-Style Bread blog post!Tip: You can knead the dough until you're happy with its shape and the smoothness of its surface, just be careful not to incorporate too much extra flour as that can make the final baked bread too dense and dry.

Place the dough into a 7-inch (18cm) round proofing basket that you’ve dusted with some millet flour with the seams facing upwards. Cover with a clean dish towel or a sheet of plastic wrap/cling film and proof in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.Tip 1: If you don't have a proofing basket, use a similarly sized mixing bowl (about 7-inches/18cm in diameter) and line it with a clean dish towel. Lightly dust the dish towel with some millet flour before placing the bread into it.Tip 2: The exact proofing time will depend on the temperature of your kitchen – if your kitchen is very warm, the bread will rise faster; if it's on the colder side, the bread will rise slower. The bread needs to approximately double in size/volume before it goes into the oven.

The baking set-up:

While the loaf is proofing, pre-heat the oven to 480ºF (250ºC) with a cast iron skillet on the middle oven rack or a Dutch oven/combo cooker on the lower middle rack. If you’re using a skillet, place a baking tray on the bottom rack of the oven. Tip: If you don't have a cast iron skillet or a Dutch oven, you can use a large baking sheet instead (you just might get a slightly flatter loaf due to reduced oven spring). In that case, follow the instructions for using the skillet.

Scoring and baking the bread:

Once the dough has doubled in volume, turn it out of the proofing basket onto a piece of parchment/baking paper and score the top about ¼-½ inch deep, using a bread lame or sharp knife. Take the hot cast iron skillet or Dutch oven/combo cooker out of the oven and then transfer the bread along with the baking paper into it.

If using a cast iron skillet: place the skillet in the oven, pour hot water into the bottom baking tray, add 3-4 ice cubes around the bread (between the parchment/baking paper and the skillet), and close the oven door.

If using a Dutch oven/combo cooker: add 3-4 ice cubes around the bread (between the baking/greaseproof paper and the walls of the Dutch oven/combo cooker) and close it, then place it into the pre-heated oven.

Bake at 480ºF (250ºC) with steam for 15 minutes – don’t open the Dutch oven or the oven doors during this initial period, as that would allow the steam to escape out of the oven.

After the 15 minutes, remove the bottom tray with water from the oven (for cast iron skillet) or uncover the Dutch oven/combo cooker, reduce the oven temperature to 400ºF (200ºC), and bake for a further 40-45 minutes in a steam-free environment. The final loaf should be of a golden brown colour and weigh about 790g immediately out of the oven (about 14% weight loss).Tip 1: For a crunchier crust, you can bake the bread at a slightly higher oven temperature during this second part of baking, at 425ºF (220ºC) instead of 400ºF (200ºC).Tip 2: Weighing the loaf tells you whether the bread has lost enough moisture to have a beautiful soft, open, non-sticky crumb. I've found this to be the most reliable method of determining when gluten free bread is done. Read more about it in my gluten free cookbook!

Transfer the loaf onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely or at least until lukewarm, before cutting into it.

Storage:

The gluten free olive bread keeps well in a closed container or wrapped in a clean dish towel in a cool dry place for 3-4 days.For best texture, I recommend toasting it on days 3 and 4.